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An hour before the practice started, both Sean Monahan and Joel Edmundson took to the ice for a skate and the Canadiens made it known shortly thereafter that both players had been shut down during the break and that new timetables for their return would be set in the next few days.
An hour later, the whole team was back on the ice and Jonathan Drouin was there with his teammates practicing in a regular jersey, which seems to indicate that he’ll be ready to go this weekend. Joel Armia, who was schedule to come back after the break was nowhere to be seen though, which probably explains why Alex Belzile and Jesse Ylonen were recalled from the Rocket this morning. It looks like the Habs will be going back to a 12-6 formation now that they do have 12 healthy forwards.
As for the lines and pairings, Rafael Harvey-Pinard who looked very good prior to the extended break playing alongside Suzuki and Anderson was still on their wing today. Mike Hoffman and Evgenii Dadonov were flanking Kirby Dach on the 2nd line, Dvorak was centering Pitlick and Ylonen on the 3rd while Jonathan Drouin joined Belzile and Pezzetta on the 4th.
While it’s great for Harvey-Pinard to be on the top line, I very much doubt that Drouin can bring the kind of game necessary for Pezzetta and Belzile to have an impact on the game. Seeing the Quebecer on the 4th line leads me to believe that the Canadiens have come to terms with the fact that there’s no bringing his value up prior to the trade deadline and that there are no suitors for him as I’m writing these lines.
Allowing Hoffman and Dadonov to play with a full of confidence Dach looks like an attempt to drum up some interest in them. With both Horvat and Tarasenko having been dealt already, it’s obvious that the trade market is alive and kicking. Shame that a couple of the Canadiens’ most enticing assets are still nursing injuries, Monahan and Edmundson are without a doubt cards that Kent Hughes would like to have up his sleeve.
In his post practice press conference, Martin St-Louis spoke about the Canadiens’ goaltending situation and stated that Samuel Montembeault has shown that he can handle more work than what he had been given when Allen was healthy, but he wouldn’t confirm if the work would be shared more evenly from now on.
The Canadiens will be practicing again in Brossard tomorrow in readiness for this weekend’s double header of afternoon games against the Islanders and the Oilers. As always during Super Bowl weekend, it will be family weekend at the Bell Centre, strange timing considering what took place in Laval yesterday when a bus driver ran its vehicle straight into a day care center, killing 2 4-year olds and injuring 6 other people. A native of Laval, the Habs head coach said this prior to his presser: “Before we start, I want to take a moment to say we play a sport, we play a game, and there are things that are way more important than that and I want to take the time to tell the victims of the Ste-Rose nursery that we’re thinking of them. Such a terrible thing, and it hit close to home for me as someone who grew in Laval West and Ste-Dorothée. It’s hard to hear news like that, so we’re thinking of you.”
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